Gentle Giant is hard to get into, but worth it.

OMFG!!! THANK YOU to those who recommended Interview, now I'm angry at myself for not listening to it much sooner.

As a Cardiacs fan, I now understand what Cardiacs meant when they said GG were a huge influence .. Yes and clearly a mine of ideas, Riffs, hooks and melodies. I never truly understood this while listening to the earlier albums, but now I fully understand why they call GG a huge influence

For example, I've just listened to the amazing Design and Timing and there are at least three very obvious bits in each that Cardiacs lifted right out and used intact.

I urge all Cardiacs fans, who haven't heard Design yet, to listen to it. And the rest of the album in fact.

I think this might now be my favourite GG album.





Edited by LAM-SGC - March 02 2020 at 02:58

Blacksword wrote: Frenetic Zetetic wrote: GG can get incredibly dense at times, and the vocals can wear on you if you're not privy to them. Minstrel music isn't a priority for most LOL. I heard someone once say "Knots" made them nauseous. Yeah, I never appreciated Knots. That makes me an utter Philistine in GG circles. It's apparently beautiful and very clever.

LAM-SGC wrote: OMFG!!! THANK YOU to those who recommended Interview, now I'm angry at myself for not listening to it much sooner. As a Cardiacs fan, I now understand what Cardiacs meant when they said GG were a huge influence .. Yes and clearly a mine of ideas, Riffs, hooks and melodies. I never truly understood this while listening to the earlier albums, but now I fully understand why they call GG a huge influence For example, I've just listened to the amazing Design and Timing and there are at least three very obvious bits in each that Cardiacs lifted right out and used intact. I urge all Cardiacs fans, who haven't heard Design yet, to listen to it. And the rest of the album in fact. I think this might now be my favourite GG album.

Frenetic Zetetic wrote: Blacksword wrote: Frenetic Zetetic wrote: GG can get incredibly dense at times, and the vocals can wear on you if you're not privy to them. Minstrel music isn't a priority for most LOL. I heard someone once say "Knots" made them nauseous. Yeah, I never appreciated Knots. That makes me an utter Philistine in GG circles. It's apparently beautiful and very clever. It's honestly not a track I go to. I usually skip it. Most of Octopus, actually. First track, last track, and The Boys in The Band are my favorites from that one. I'm all about In a Glass House and TPATG. My father even likened GG to a "Frank Zappa backing band" when I once showed him The Boys in The Band, lol   .

I always felt that Octopus was their most consistent album. The Advent of Panurge is probably my favourite GG song, if I had to choose one. There are some good tracks on PTATG too, notably Playing the Game, Procalamation and Aspirations.

They certainly had the chops to be Zappa's backing band. I'm sure they would have met his high standards. GG have a significant place in prog history, and their musicianship is to be admired greatly, but for me, that olde minstral formula is just a bit grating after a while. I heard that Brian May was a fan, and they supported Queen on one of their early tours. Not sure if that's true, but it wouldn't have been a bad combo for a live show.

Totally worth the effort. GG is one of my favorite bands ever.

I'm actually in the process of " getting in to" Gentle Giant. I'm not familiar with all of their stuff but I've been checking them out more and more. I love a lot of the instrumental sections. I not totally on board with some of the vocals yet. Like I said, It's  a process. 

Spacegod87 wrote: "Gentle Giant is hard to get into.." I've seen this written a lot on this site.  I never had an issue getting into GG. Adored them since note one. Believe it or not, it was Genesis that I couldn't get into at first...GENESIS! How embarrassing...

Edited by moshkito - March 02 2020 at 11:31

Guldbamsen wrote: Personally I had some trouble getting into Gentle Giant...but that was because I thought they sounded like Robin Hood prog. I had all these images of men in Peter Pan-like tights dancing quaintly about whilst singing their polyphonic odes to maids without teeth.

I think most of us would admit we didn’t really click with GG until the first time donning a pair of green tights and cavorting around our apartment to the strains of Raconteur, Troubador.

I'm sort of the, "I liked GG on first listen, grew to love the band, then largely lost interest" persuasion.

I started by downloading a couple of songs for my first mp3 player (what I had on that was song based rather than albums). It was the song "Free Hand" that got into my skull. Not long after I purchased Acquiring the taste, which remained my favourite Gentle Giant album, and I bought all of the other studio albums in bulk. I liked the first eight (all up to and including Interview very much), and seriously disliked The Missing Piece, Giant For a Day and Civilian.

Gentle Giant was my favourite band, well that and Premiata Forneria Marconi, for some time before joining this site. At some time later I went very off Gentle Giant -- stopped listening altogether for years. Now I can only take GG in moderation and hardly ever feel like playing it. Interestingly, I discovered VdGG at the same time, and while GG immediately appealed that much more, VdGG is the one that managed to hold my interest. I did hold GG in much higher regard then. Another band I started getting into a a little later, Magma, also managed to hold my interest (mind you, that's a longer career with many more albums). Actually, I also lost most of my interest in Magma for quite some time.

I once did a topic on bands we we were once major fans of and then lost interest, and Gentle Giant was one of my personal examples. That said, I can enjoy GG more than I did ten years ago, but no where near as much as 14 and 15 years ago. As I got to explore more and more music, it just didn't seem as great as I once thought.

Edited by Logan - March 02 2020 at 13:12

Throughout my student years, I hated GG. I spat on them.